Is this evidence of fraud?

[tigertoy]

I got an envelope in the mail today that was some mailings forwarded from my old job about my old 401(k) plan.  They'd been delayed a few weeks in getting to me.

One of them is a letter from Morgan Stanley urging me to submit my proxy (in support of management, of course) for a special shareholder meeting.  It says that another company, called Computershare Fund Services, is managing telephone voting.

The other is a letter from Computershare which purports to be a confirmation of my telephone proxy vote (on all issues voting with management).

The problem is that I never made any telephone vote.  I certainly never called Computershare.  If they called me, I took them for a spammer and hung up.  I probably received an earlier notification of what the actual issues are, but I didn't read it, I don't have any opinions on the issues, and I certainly didn't take any action to vote my non-existent feelings.

The shareholder's meeting the proxy was for was today, so it is too late to actually affect the vote.  I assume that management spent however much of my money they needed to to drum up enough proxy votes to get their plan, whatever it is, implemented.  But if their means of drumming up votes is to submit fraudulent proxies from small investors who don't vote anyway, something is more wrong with this picture than normal.

Do I need to report this to the SEC?

Comments

[msminlr.livejournal.com]

I would send them copies of the whole thing, and a cover letter pointing out that none of it got to you until after the purported phoned-in vote. There is definitely something skunky smelling about it.

[msminlr.livejournal.com]

Was the number to call for the proxy voting an 800-number, or would it have shown up on your phone bill had you actually made such a call?

With an 800-number, does the RECIPIENT's phone bill show the origin of all calls to the number? Ifso, it should be possible to establish that no call from YOUR home phone number was made to the call-to-vote number.

[starstraf.livejournal.com]

often there is a deadline for voting or notifiying them you are going to vote in person at the meeting. Often there is a clause that if you do not vote by X date you are assumed to vote with management and your vote will be entered as such